Use washing line to support cable with an electric mower

I've had an electric mower for over two years and each time the ruddy
cable is a pain. Keeps getting in the way. I prefer a petrol-driven
mower, which I also have, but after the heart op two years ago I was
strongly advised NOT to use the recoil starter. And so I purchased the
Bosch lightweight electric mower. (It is VERY light!)
So, day before yesterday I fetched out the mower for the first time
after winter and once again laid the orange cable out of reach of the
cutter. What I could do with, I thought, was a helper (person) to pay
out just the right amount of cable as I perambulate around the lawn
with the thing. A robot would also do the trick, but for the money I
could employ a gardener.
That's when I saw the washing line, as if for the first time. What if
I draped the cable over the line? At least it wouldn't then be lying
on the grass. So I did, and the results were fantastic! Not as good as
a helper (person) or a robot, but way better than letting the cable
get in the way all the time. Sort of like a giant version of this
amazing gadget, which I've had on my ironing board for ages:
http://tinyurl.com/ironholderminky
Gonna put my thinking cap on this afternoon and draw up a project to
design a cable letter-outer/puller-inner, which would be wireless
controlled by voice from a Bluetooth headset. I'll draw up the patent
application tomorrow.
By the way, now that my chest has healed I can use the petrol mower
again, so ordered a new blade as the current one was as old as the
mower (12+ years).
However, the new blade doesn't look any sharper than the old one! So
that was a waste of 11 quid.
MM

Possibly a bit late, but the Bosch Rotak battery 36V LiIon mower is
better than you might imagine - I would say that it is actually quite
good as a mower in absolute terms and bloody excellent when you factor
in it is light weight and has no cable.
2 batteries and you can just about keep going - one runs for about 30
mins of hard mowing, the charge time is maybe an hour so allowing for
stopping and a tea break...

But that is indeed a great idea. Cables always seem to alighn themselves
with the path of the next cut no matter what direction you are mowing in...

Great minds think alike, etc.
My late father ended up with a battery powered mower, very light and
easy to use. He only had the one battery and thought it was great. By
the time the battery had gone flat so had he. So it was the perfect
excuse for an hours break and a cup of tea!

Show off!
*I* grew up in a very large house, so there!
https://www.facebook.com/ExtraordinaryGhostHunters/photos/pb.258134740874703.-2207520000.1429454097./367164019971774/?type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/ExtraordinaryGhostHunters/photos/pb.258134740874703.-2207520000.1429454097./367163886638454/?type=1&theater
My parents ran it until 1975, then it was owned by someone else for
20-odd years, and now it's derelict. Plot was going for £2.5 million
till it was taken off the market for some reason. My bro said he'd buy
it and restore it if he won the lottery.
But we didn't have a ride-on mower! Mum had a Jersey cow, which could
have been ridden, I suppose.
MM

It was nice. It was friggin' amazing! I was 19 when we moved there. My
bro 10 years younger, so he got to know it much better. I left in 1969
to seek work in Germany. My dad worked his b*llocks off, commuting to
London every day for 20 years as an accountant, plus working on the
house and grounds in the evenings and weekends. He must have been
constantly knackered. My mum ran the place as an old people's home
"For Retired Gentlefolk", all of whom lived out their final years in
very pleasant surroundings. Mum did of course have several helpers to
help with the laundry, washing up, cooking, cleaning, caring and so
on, but she, too, worked her fingers to the bone. She looked after the
flower gardens at the front, while dad kept up the market garden round
the back which itself was at least half an acre. Dad had green
fingers, so we got most of our veg from the garden. As a farmer's
daughter, mum always wanted her own cow, and when the Jersey arrived,
she quickly got to milk it. She didn't have to learn. It's like riding
a bike. She grew up on a farm in Herefordshire. She bought a
separator, extracted the thick Jersey cream from the milk and made
butter, also something she had to learn to do as a child in a family
of nine or ten siblings (I've lost count of just how many, because
Uncle Gilbert was killed in the first months of the war (WW2) in the
Battle of the River Plate, and an aunt died quite young.)
Then in 1975 they retired. Sadly, after only five years of retirement
and a busy life of caring for others (she was a nurse in World War 2),
as well as bringing up a family, my mother died of a heart attack aged
60 in 1980.
In one way I am glad they are both long gone now, since it would kill
them to see what has become of the place since they left.
MM

One day, when the wibbling house is done, I will do a bit of landscaping
in the garden (levels are everywhere).
I will reseed the lawn with something soft and slow growing. Where I've
repaired and reseeded areas, I have grass that is either fine and slow
or goes "boing" and is 6" high when all around is 3". Because I just
bought random packets of seeds for that temporary fix...

It is too late now! I already have: petrol Champion, an ancient but
working Suffolk Punch, a hand mower, and the Bosch cable.
But my experience of tools that require charging has not been great. I
have tried three battery hand-held vacuum cleaners, one hedge trimmer,
and a screwdriver and in all cases the batteries failed after a year
or two. The hedge trimmer was the worst. It was an Argos brand, I
believe. Only cost around 20 quid. But useless, as it only retained a
charge for about 30 minutes. I gave it away and bought almost the same
model, but with a cable. It would take A LOT to convince me to buy
~any~thing with a battery, whether one of those expensive £199 vacuum
cleaner jobbies from the telly, or an electric car. I would certainly
never consider a rechargeable drill or similar, although I can see how
one of those is probably useful in the trade where there is no power
point handy.
The only gadget I have that has proved reliable with a battery is my
APC UPS (Back-UPS CS 500) which has needed only one replacement
battery in seven years. Mind you, that only gets used IF the mains
power fails.

Yep, done it again like that and it definitely makes the job easier.
MM

I expect Capitols is a fairly heavy duty one but approx a decade ago
B and Q stocked thes ,possibly only one batch.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/usedphotosna/40758737_614.jpg
Can't remember what I paid now ,somewhere between £100-£150 which may
have been a sale price.
Proved to be a boon to my elderly Father who was then in his early
eighties . Main Job was moving Logs from the various sheds where they
were stored till seasoned and into the porch ready for the Rayburn.
Unlike some of the powered wheel barrows I have seen this little
plastic job called the LUV which stood for Lawn Utility Vehicle had
low sides which made loading easy and being a trycycle design did not
require any lifting action from an elderley body.
Did the job admirably for a decade till he got too old even to walk
far. I did had to repair the direction switch but,that was the fault
of my young Nephew and Neice or rather my Sister who let them treat it
as a Toy one afternoon and they rode around in it as if it was a
Dodgem car.
Got rid of after Dad died and Mother moved on, no further use for it
and the battery needed replacing by then.
It was a US firm who had had it made but when I looked up for a new
switch it had already changed hands once and wasn't being sold
anymore.
G.Harman
G.Harman

The family bought me mine. About £550 IIRC. Uses a wheelchair motor.
> http://www.easybarrow.co.uk/powered equipment/big_page_PPP01.html
We went to a funeral yesterday, so I pointed out to my wife, that to
avoid paying for a hearse to carry our coffins, we would have to buy a
new battery for the wheelbarrow! We live about 1200yards from the
crematorium, mostly down hill!

I noticed in Toolstation this weekend, that they're flogging a 40V
battery mower for 200 quid. They reckoned the battery included was
worth 100. It sounded a bit weak to me at 2Ah but maybe that depends on
how hard you work a mower (ie how in/frequently you use it).
I'm sure the Rotak is in a different league (and comes with much more
capacity) but it seems simplest to stick with petrol to me (all things
being equal, which they clearly aren't in your case).

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